123 Jesus

So Nathaniel just started writing songs about God and Jesus this morning. I recorded one of them for you guys, and here are the words: 1 2 3 Jesus, He helps me, He wouldn't lie. 1 2 3 Jesus, He helps me, He wouldn't lie. He does good things.

Some of the other song lyrics are: (1)Jesus, Jesus, one true God, we believe in Him (2) One true God, one true God, one true God, He did lots of cool things and (3) God is amazing, amazing, amazing. He died on the cross for our sins.

He has been singing them off and on all day, without my prompting.

Sorry it is sideways...

Happy Birthday Marcia!

Today is my mother-in-laws birthday - happy birthday Marcia! She really is the best mother-in-law a girl could ask for. We always have a great time with each other and NEVER run out of stuff to talk about! She and Steve have an awesome relationship and if that is any indication for how Nathaniel will be when he gets older, I am a lucky girl!

Marcia opening the gift from Nathaniel

Steve and I

Blowing our her candle

All of us left bottom corner clockwise: Billy, Steve, me, Nathaniel, Marcia and Bill

She and her husband, Bill came over to our house tonight before we went out for dinner. We gave her her gifts here, she spent some quality time with Nathaniel and then we went out to dinner at Carrabbas (thanks Bill!) Billy, her step-son "let it slip" that it was her birthday, so she got a free dessert, with a candle!

Weekend Camping Vacation

What a great time we had this weekend camping at the Inn at Kelly's Ford, one of our favorite places to go in general. Beautiful scenery, friendly staff and good food (one of the perks about camping there is that there is the pub not far if you don't want to cook!)

Lots of great memories were made this weekend - from fishing at the pond and on the river to watching the horse and rider come through our campsite (with our permission) to catching fireflies in the evening.

 Fishing on the river



and Nathaniel chilling at the campsite



Steve



Steve teaching Nathaniel the art of catching fireflies





Nathaniel showing me one of the fireflies he caught (the firefly is on the top of the cup)

And, my favorite memory:

Nathaniel catching fireflies with his own method: smacking them in the cup with the paper plate. He was so excited to catch them, his first time ever catching them. As you can tell, I was watching from the comfort of behing the campfire.



Visiting with the other Smiths

The other Smith family (Steve's brother and his family) came in from Michigan on Monday. It was so good to get to spend time with them. Steve's brother is a pastor at a church in Battle Creek, Michigan and his wife, Beth works at PetCo part time and homeshool's their 3 children full time. It was such a blessing to be able to see them again (it's been since July 2010 since these three Smiths have seen them.

I enjoyed listening to how God is working in their lives, especially Beth's stories of how God is using her at PetCo. Their three kids, Drea, Aidan and Ella are very sweet and Nathaniel had a blast playing with them. He will be pooped today! He spent the night with them on Monday night (very spur of the moment) and even got to wear a pair of Aidan't pajamas! I very happy to know he will remember the time he spent with them!

In the picture (for those of you who don't know my family) are Steve's brother Brad and Steve (the two tall guys, Brad is on the left), second row from left is Drea (their oldest) Beth (Brad's wife), Marcia (the mom, grandma) and me and on the bottom row from left is Ella (their youngest), Aidan (the middle child) and our Nathaniel.

Here we go!

I have decided to get into the 21st century and creat a blog. I have decided this will be a better way to communicate with family and friends about our journey in life and the growth of our son.

The first video is of Nanthaniel and my trip to the bowling alley yesterday. On the way to church, he said (out of the blue) that he wanted to go bowling after church...so we did. He had so much fun and was sooo appreciative.

Another thing we have been doing is working on the playroom, putting more storage into the wall, making MUCH more room in the playroom. This is a picture of Nathaniel in one of the storage areas, he was helping his dad.